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SPEECH 



A. H. LAWRENCE, ESQ., 



MEETING OF WHIGS 



WASHINGTON CITY, 



MAY 31st, 1852. 



PRINTED AND CIRCULATED BY THE CENTRAL WEBSTER COMMITTEE, 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY JNO. T. TOWER: 
1852. 



\ 






SPEECH. 



Mr. Chaibman : Very serious alarm is beginning to be felt here 
as to the course of the Southern Whig party in regard to the 
nomination and election of President. 

It is thought by many of our best and wisest men, (and the opin- 
ion is fast gaining ground,) that we are upon the eve of a great po- 
litical danger, which has not until very recently attracted much 
notice. A danger which is not the less, but rather the more alarm- 
ing> that it is not to be seen in any very violent outbreak of popular 
feeling, nor in any measures of legislative or Executive encroach- 
ment, but will rather be felt in the silent and secret alienation of 
one portion of our Union from the other, and an introduction of 
sectional rather than national parties, the inevitable result of 
which will be that whatever measures may be hereafter proposed, 
however offensive or hostile they may be to other than the locali- 
ty where they originated, however repugnant to existing laws or 
to the Constitution, or to good faith, no man will again be found 
so reckless of his own quiet, so purely and disinterestedly regard- 
less of all personal considerations, as to stand forth, in opposition 
to the sentiments of his constituency, in support of the true inter- 
ests of the whole country. Sir, I fear that the Northern Conserv- 
ative, Compromise, Webster Whigs, have some apparent reason 
to complain of their Southern Whig brethren as to the manner in 
which Mr. Webster has been treated in the meetings and assem- 
blies at the South ; and yet 1 am most happy to believe that the 
supposed neglect has not arisen from any ungrateful forgetfulness 
of Mr. Webster's services to the whole country, and especially to 
the South, or from any want of appreciation of his great abilities, 
his comprehensive statesmanship, his truly national and conserva- 
tive and patriotic principles, far less from a disposition to over- 
look and pass by those excellencies because they were found in 
a Northern man, but from a mistaken impression that Mr. Web- 
ster was hardly considered as an available candidate for the Pre- 
sidency among the Whigs of the North themselves. 

I believe that there is no disposition in the South to overlook or 
depreciate the eminent services of Mr. Webster; that there is felt 
for his self-sacrificing and patriotic conduct on the compromise a 
lively and profound respect and gratitude; and that were Mr. 
Webster placed before them as the nominee of the Whig party 
he would bring to his support the entire strength of the Whigs of 
the South. And yet it is nevertheless true, that in almost all the 
resolutions of Southern meetings for the choice of delegates to the 
National Convention, whilst the compromise measures as a "final- 



ity " are set forth as the single qualification to be never lost sight 
of in the choice of a candidal e. yet Mr, Webster is rarely mentioned 
by name. There is apparently, and judging only from the resolu- 
tions, a total forgetful ness of Mr. Webster in the disposition to do 
honor to the present President. Our Northern friends are told, 
and we believe it to be so, that these resolutions have been 
framed in compliment to the head of an able and distinguished 
administration; that they indicate no personal preference; and 
that in fact Mr. Webster has the fullest and broadest confidence 
of the Southern Whigs. While we cordially concede to Mr. Fill- 
more the high praise of having fearlessly done his duty to the 
Constitution and the country in the hour of danger, we feel that 
the effect which this apparent neglect is producing on the feelings 
of the North is perhaps the worst indication of the times. It is to 
be dreaded and avoided even more than the excitement which 
preceded the passage of the compromise measures. It will do 
more to undo those measures as a final settlement of the fearful 
questions then agitated than all the efforts of all the, abolitionists 
and socialists and rhapsodists in the country. It will do more to 
weaken our faith in the policy of patriotism, it will do more to 
sectionalize parties, it will do more to keep down and repress 
broad and disinterested views of public affairs, than all the objur- 
gations of fanaticism which have been hurled at the head of the 
Secretary of State. 

Even now it is said that Mr. Webster is,the last statesman of the 
North, who will ever sacrifice himself in the contests upon the 
subject of slavery. Even already, we fear that an abatement of 
feeling has already begun to be felt amongst those who have thus 
far given check to abolitionism. They say already, if Daniel 
Webster is not to be trusted by the South, it is in vain to expect 
hereafter any support to any Northern man. If the services which 
he has tendered do not entitle him to the regard of the whole 
country, no man can ever look for it in time to come. It was a 
fearful crisis when the Compromise was under discussion. The 
danger which was hanging over our country was more imminent 
than had ever before threatened it. Both parties were contend- 
ing for extremes. The Union itself was shaking on its very 
foundations. Good men, intelligent men, patriotic men, were 
trembling for its safety. Clouds and darkness were hanging over 
our country; and men's hearts were failing them for fear. In 
this crisis, the Senator from Massachusetts stood forth, and it is 
not too much to say that he held the fate of this Union in the 
palms of his hands. Had he given encouragement to the wild 
spirit of abolitionism, which was raging at the North — had he 
turned the influence of his great intellect and great name against 
the constitutional rights of the South — or, had he made use of 
that theoretical repugnance to slavery in the abstract, which is 
general at the North, and fanned it into a consuming fire, the days 
of this Republic would have been numbered. This is not un- 



meaning or groundless assertion. It is susceptible almost of de- 
monstration. Who does not know that it took all o( Mr. Webster's 
great influence at the North to carry with him even his most de- 
voted friends? Who does not, know that he has incurred the 
rancorous hatred of a very considerable portion of the Whig 
party in the North? Who does not know that Mr. Webster 
not 'only hazarded, but that for a time, he actually lost that 
position, that proud position, which he had up to that time 
maintained undisputed in the hearts of the people of Massa- 
chusetts; and that the doors of that cradle of liberty, which 
had been so often the scene of his triumphant displays of 
eloquence and patriotism, were actuallv closed against him? 
Thank God he has since been in Faneuil Hall "OPEN." Every 
one knows this that knows any thing of the events which have 
transpired within the last two years. If then such was the 
struggle, which was required to maintain the position even of 
Daniel Webster, in the State of Massachusetts, when taking the 
stand which he did at the demand of lofty national patriotism, 
who does not see that the influence of his name, when thrown' 
into the same scale with the sectional feelings of the free States, 
would have carried them in a body against any me sures which 
looked like a compromise with slavery. 

Now, it is not loo much to say, that to Daniel Webster more 
than to any other man belongs the credit of having averted this 
awful calamity. To him more than to all other public men is to 
be ascribed the check which was given to that dangerous progress 
of abolitionism in the free States, which would have inevitably 
brought on all the consequences I have alluded to. For his own 
personal popularity in his own section of the country, it was a 
truly hazardous proceeding. But. he did not regard his private 
fortunes in the public cause. He saw that his country was in 
danger, and he staked his all for that country. At that, tearful 
crisis he knew no North, no South, nothing hut the UNION. He 
trusted that future times would do justice to his motives, though 
the present might cover him with obloquy. 

Mr. Chairman, the only mode by which the constitutional rights 
of the South can ever be preserved, is by the maintenance of a con- 
stitutional conservative party in the non-slaveholding States. Of 
course I am not speaking now of violent and revolutionary mea- 
sures resorted to in self-defence, against aggressive acts ; but of 
laws regularly passed, and which should not endanger the perpe- 
tuity of the Union. I repeat, then, that the only mode consistently 
with the safety of the Union by which the constitutional rights of the 
South will be preserved, is by the encouragement and maintenance 
of a conservative Union party in the free States. If political abo- 
lition should ever become the prevailing policy of the free States, 
it needs no prophet to foretell that aggressive measures would be 
commenced upon the institution of slavery. It needs no prophet 
to foretell that such aggressions would be resisted. And that would 



6 

be war, civil war. There is no middle course if the North and 
South are arrayed against each other as a whole upon this sub- 
ject. There, is nothing' to restrain the violence of either. But let 
a conservative party be maintained in the free States themselves, 
as is the case now, and conservative measures will always be the* 
result. We have seen this in the fearful crisis which has been 
passed. Ii; will always be so hereafter. 

But, let me ask. how is a conservative party to be maintained 
in the North. Is it to sustain itself amidst all the discourage- 
ments at the North without any encouragement from the South? 
Will such a party continue true to the rights of the South, whilst 
the South shall cast it off as an useless thing as soon as its own 
purposes are answered? Or can such a party be maintained 
when its leaders, its great men, its good men, are not. trusted, are 
not met with that cordial greeting, are not honored and supported 
as they ought to be? It is reasoning against the whole current 
of human feeling and human conduct to believe it. Those grent, 
leaders, those patriotic statesmen might continue firm in the 
cause they had espoused ; but their followers would fall off in 
mortification and disgust. There would be no conservative party. 
Every man who knows Mr. Webster knows that he would re- 
main steadfast to the principles on which he has acted, if every 
man in the country should desert him. He could "take no step 
backward." He would remain true to the<^onstituiion of the 
United States by the necessity of his nature. He could not adopt 
an unconstitutional course until the laws of intellect should be 
changed. But for the very reason of his greatness and his un- 
changeable firmness would not his friends be the more touched 
by the neglect to pay the tribute due to those qualities ? 

Now suppose that Mr. Webster, after the peculiar services 
which he has rendered in this matter, and after the particular 
resentments which he has incurred " in the house of his friends," 
Should now — when his steadfast followers there, those who have 
stood by him in good report and evil report, are seeking to do him 
honor — be passed by with neglect here in the South ? What will 
be its moral effect hereafter? In the first place, what will be its 
immediate effects on the friends of the compromise — the support- 
ers of the fugitive slave law in the North? Will they feel them- 
selves particularly called upon to rise up early and sit up late, in 
order to do battle for this fugitive slave law against all the de- 
vices of its enemies — when the South, for whose benefit it was 
enacted, and for whose benefit it-is carried out, takes no step for- 
ward to meet the man who has done more to give this law abi- 
ding constitutional efficiency than all other men? Will they not 
grow indifferent and lukewarm? Most certainly they will. But 
this is not all. When some emergency shall hereafter arise ; 
when, perhaps, this very slave question shall again be agitated; 
when the repeal of the fugitive slave act shall be urged — the 
very act which requires a greater veneration for existing law than 



all others to carry it into execution in the midst of the free States — 
that act, which in its practical operation on the real interests of 
the South, is of more consequence than all the other questions per- 
taining to that subject ; 1 say, when some such crisis shall again 
come, where will the man be found who will be willing to stem 
the torrent of prejudice at home, and yet know or believe that he 
will find no just appreciation, no public acknowledgment of his 
services amongst those for whom he has hazarded his domestic 
popularity? Where is the future statesman, who, with the his- 
tory of Daniel Webster before him (if unfortunately such neglect 
cf Mr. Webster shall ever be matter of history) will risk his 
personal comfort and good name among his neighbors and kins- 
folk for the benefit of those who will not thank him for it when 
it is done ? No such man will ever be found. It is against 
human nature to expect it. It is against all experience to hope 
for it. And what will be the result ? Will it not be sectional 
feeling, sectional action, sectional parties; and will not the con- 
sequence of that be sectional measures, and in the end a dissolu- 
tion of the Union? Such we fear will be the consequence, if 
we here, in the South, fail to manifest our appreciation of such 
services as Mr. Webster has rendered. We know that in fact a 
proper feeling does exist, and that the neglect is only apparent. 
We know that no man stands better in the estimation of all 
union -loving men in the South than Mr. Webster. Yet our 
Northern friends do not, know it. They have had no good ground 
to suppose it. The appearance of things is against it. And yet 
in all practical consequences, the appearance is as fatal as the 
reality. And whether real or apparent, its moral influence, and 
its practical consequence hereafter, is as much to be deplored, 
and as earnestly to be struggled against, as any event that could 
well be imagined. 

Sir, it is the apprehension, whether fanciful or real, that Northern 
men who are free from the shackles of mere local opinion, and 
are rrational in their views, looking to the whole country in their 
measures, are nevertheless to be rejected by Southern men be- 
cause, forsooth, on certain subjects which are local to them, such 
Northern statesmen may not go so far as they do. These local 
ideas, these narrow and confined notions of public policy, would, 
if generally acted on, ruin any free government extending over 
such a space of territory as ours. Our only safety on questions 
of such vital interest is for opposing opinions to extend through 
all sections of the country. The greatest safety for the constitu- 
tional rights of the South, on the subject of slavery, is the exist- 
ence of a party in the free soil States who are determined to abide 
by the provisions of the Constitution. 

I repeat then that nothing will tend more to put down, and 
keep down hereafter, a conservative and constitutional and na- 
tional spirit in the North than the belief that Northern statesmen 
of that character are not supported by the South. And nothing 



8 

would more largety contribute to maintain, to "perpetuate a party 
in the North, always true to the constitutional rights of the South, 
than seeing the Southern Whig party coming up in one solid 
phalanx to the support, for the Presidency, of the great Northern 
Champion of the true principles of the American Constitution. 
Let us do what we can to bring about this event. Let us do 
what we can to avert the impending clanger. Let us do what 
we can to raise the man whom we venerate to the highest office 
of the Republic, not simply because he deserves it and more than 
deserves it, but because we shall thus be serving the best interest 
of our whole country, and accomplishing something for the perpe- 
tuity of this glorious Union. 




